‘Sermons in Stone: The Stone Walls of New England & New York” is more than a book about stone walls.

Author Susan Allport is a science writer, and she ranges from how the glaciers brought the stones to the region and the types of fences — from stump fences to zig-zag rail fences used before stone walls were built — to theories about erratic stones and dolmens, who the builders of the walls were and much more.

Allport lives in Westchester County, N.Y., in a house with stone walls — some of them built by her husband, David Howell, who did the illustrations for the book.

Published by Countryman Press in Woodstock, Vt., “Sermons in Stone” is the second edition of a book first published in 1994, and costs $16.97 as a trade paperback. 

Q: It seems this book is a bit mistitled. It’s about a lot more than stone walls — maybe property management through history or something like that.

A: I kind of call it a social history of stone walls, because it covers so much more than stone walls. When we moved out to Westchester, just north of the city, the land that went through our lot had all of these walls. This area went through a lot of transitions, from farms to estates that were divided up. There are walls all over the place, and trails through the woods that have walls, and that got the ball rolling. I thought, what are they doing here?

As a science writer, I did some research, and I hoped there would be some meaty stuff. And there was a lot more material than I ever thought there would be, and it was a lot more interesting. 

Q: How did this new edition of the book come about?

A: You’ll have to ask the publisher that. The book had been in print since it first came out in the 1990s, and I suppose they thought that a new cover would reinvigorate it. 

Q: Did you update it — particularly time-sensitive topics such as pay for wall builders, that might have changed over the years?

A: No. When they asked to republish it, I asked them if they wanted me to do a new introduction, and they said that would be fine. But they didn’t ask me to change anything. There are a lot more recent books about current wall building. 

Q: The 1990s, when this book first came out, is when I first heard about people buying up or stealing stone walls. Is that still happening?

A: I think people are now aware that it is not a right thing to do. Before, they just thought that nobody cares, and that someone might want to rebuild it. But now they know that the stone is the most precious part of it, and that it is history. 

Q: I enjoyed the section in which you discuss the theories about dolmens and erratics, that they could have been done by the same people who did the rock structures in Ireland or elsewhere. But you think that isn’t likely.

A: It is not likely. They couldn’t have done it without leaving behind any other evidence that they were here — no pots, no shards, no utensils. To me, it is just grasping at straws, looking at mysteries that are not there.  

Q: A lot of the walls I see on fishing trips in the Maine woods are only a couple of feet tall and fairly broad. Are those mostly taller walls that have fallen down?

A: Walls certainly do decrease in height over time. The weight pushes them down, and the soil gets built up around them. If they are really low, they could have been just a stone dump or maybe someone took the top stones and they fell apart.

And another thing — a lot of walls used to have stakes and riders on top of them, so if they did, those parts would have rotted away by now. 

Q: The list of your other book titles seems to be all over the map — and quite interesting. “Queen of Fats” is about the removal of Omega 3s from the modern diet. “A Natural History of Parenting.” The title “The Primal Feast: Food, Sex, Foraging and Love” would make anyone want to read it. “Explorers of the Black Box: The Search for the Cellular Basis of Memory” sounds highly technical. And then something as simple as stone walls. 

How did this wide variety come about?

A: I know. I guess that stone walls are the outlier of the group. But they are all about things I see around me, that I look at and get interested in. The book about parental care came about because we keep sheep, and we watched them. That led me to the food study, “Primal Feast,” because we realized that food is the basis of all good parenting.

And “Queen of Fats” is about the fate of the fats that are concentrated in green leafy vegetables and responsible for photosynthesis. They are concentrated in our eyes and brain, and are very powerful. 

That is really a huge story in “Queen of Fats,” how we became deficient in one of the most abundant fats on earth. 

Q: What are you working on now?

A: After writing “Queen of Fats” I thought that I could bake things with the right ratio of certain essential fats, Omega 3s and Omega 6s, and get them out there. I figured it would be a lot easier to sell baked goods and cookies than to write another book about it. So I am making breakfast cookies — I call them Susie’s Smart Breakfast Cookies — and am all over the place and doing very well. They really are a very delicious substitute for other breakfast food. The website is susiesmartcookie.com.

Tom Atwell is a freelance writer living in Cape Elizabeth. He can be contacted at 767-2297 or at:

tomatwell@me.com

 

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